The public embarrassment of the flameout of an apparently leading candidate troubled some Penn State observers; others were struck by what it said about Penn State's situation that someone like Smith
was the leading candidate.
SUNY Upstate is a medical university with a budget of about $900 million, about one-fifth the size of Penn State's. Smith was previously chancellor of Texas Tech University, and had significant administrative experience in academic hospitals before that. But he had never run an institution of anywhere near Penn State's size or complexity, and was anything but a recognizable name in higher education.
“If you’re the kind of person qualified to be president of Penn State based on your past experiences, you’ve got other options,” said Donald Heller, the former head of Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education and now dean of the education college at Michigan State University.
For instance, Ohio State University is looking for a president, as is the University of Michigan.
It's hard to imagine, Heller said, that someone like Smith would have stood a chance to lead Penn State before the sexual abuse scandal.
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Inside Higher Ed